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And I discovered why.... I'm shocked at the incompetence of whoever installed the transmission on this car. Pressure plate bolts had lock washers on them (WTF?) and... check out the first pic. Notice anything missing?

Now for the second pic... the car seems to have a small coolant leak which I think is coming from the block heater plug. The thing I'm wondering about is, the block seems to be kind of damp at the block/head interface. Should I be concerned?

looks like your missing some balls in the bearing!!! you weren't joking about needing that tranny, come pick up the one I have and get your car running , I will find another one b4 the stroker motor is built.

Bump... anyone have any thoughts about the second pic there? The dampness around the head? I was working under my M30 E34 last night/this morning and noticed it has a similar dampness.

Seeing as that car has been running okay for 40,000kms since I bought it, I'm going to assume it's not a problem...

PS- everlast, if you need help changing your clutch, let me know... I have now done them 3x on my Jeep, 1x on the E34, and 1x on the E30. Plus a couple of other times having the transmissions out for various reasons...

Thanks, I will definitely put out a post for "halp" when that time comes. I'd rather buy everyone pizza and beer and make a weekend of it than pay a local garage to chip my paint, put grease on my seat and break a little piece of trim, which seems to happen every time my car goes to a shop.

Bump... anyone have any thoughts about the second pic there? The dampness around the head? I was working under my M30 E34 last night/this morning and noticed it has a similar dampness.

Seeing as that car has been running okay for 40,000kms since I bought it, I'm going to assume it's not a problem...

PS- everlast, if you need help changing your clutch, let me know... I have now done them 3x on my Jeep, 1x on the E34, and 1x on the E30. Plus a couple of other times having the transmissions out for various reasons...

Doesn't look too out of the ordinary. Clean it up a bit with some degreeser and keep an eye on it for a while. If you're not getting any problems than it's most likely nothing to be worried about.

Small update... pulled a fair bit of the motor apart to do the throttle body heater delete, so I figured I'd paint the valve cover, intake, and throttle body while I had them out. Not perfect, but I'm happy with it... looks good from a few feet away.

All I have left to do before it's road-ready is finish draining the gas tank, drop it and fix whatever is leaking, put it back in, install driveshaft, exhaust, bleed the brakes, bleed the coolant, and drive!

So I dropped the tank, and the problem was what I think is the driver's side chamber vent line (in red). That is pretty much completely shot. It's rotted away right at where it goes into the tank... so I'm wondering if I can plug the current hole, drill a new one, and JB Weld a piece of fuel line into it.

Thoughts? Can I just plug it and leave it?

(The pic isn't my tank - I stole it from a FS ad. The line in the pic looks like it should.)

If it is indeed the vent line going to the front of the car, plug it and forget it. That vent line goes to the charcoal filter then into the bottom of the TB. Every FI E30 just disconnects it and some just plug the line. That's what I'll be doing. Obviously, plug the hole in the TB or something too, otherwise you'll have a small vacuum leak.

Oddly, some guys like to leave that line open so their gas tank doesn't explode from pressure on hot days, which means they are venting gas fumes from the fume tank above the filler next into the engine bay. I do not see how that is safe, but they insisted its safer than pressurizing your tank. I disagree, since old cars didn't have any vents at all, and you'd hear the air whoosh out when you opened the filler cap.